I grew up among the rolling hills of Southern Brazil. It was like many places outside of the U.S. where there are cities with lots of tall, high-rise condos and congested roads, and then there is countryside with very few houses, lots of farms and some forests (ever fewer, unfortunately). There was no semi-suburbia of ranchettes with big lawns to give homeowners weekends of labor. Most people lived in the city and only the really poor or the really rich lived in the countryside (in gated compounds).
Above is a picture of me in a sugarcane field at a friend’s farm (2013).
All this is to get to the point of sugar, specifically cane sugar. Growing up we would sometimes drive for hours through the sugarcane areas of the Brazilian countryside. We were like bugs in a bugmobile, driving through a lawn of cane stalks towering 12 feet high on both sides of the road as far as the eye could see, the thick stalks with green grassy tops hiding only loads of snakes. Every year at harvest the farmers would torch the fields to clear the underbrush — and still do this today — to get rid of the small strands of brushy grass and chase out the snakes. Once cleared the workers head out in the tropical heat with machetes to manually chop all the big stalks and bundle them for pressing to release the cane juice. The juice is boiled into molasses, bleached, and dried for table sugar. For a month the skies are light brown all the time, the smell of smoke a constant reminder of the air quality cost of sugar. These kind of farms (and now more mechanized versions) are what give the world its “pure” cane sugar and molasses for rum.
And then there is the sugar itself — cane sugar now being considered “healthy” given the bad rap high fructose corn syrup has. As far as the human body is concerned, cane sugar is marvelous, at least at first taste, because it activates the same neural network as opioids — a freeway of stimulation urging us to eat more — leading to cravings and addiction, diabetes, obesity and rampant tooth decay.
“Um, Flavio…” you ask, “why are you writing about such depressing things?”
It’s a good question…
I write because although these dire observations are true, it is also true that sugar is part of our experience on the planet as humans. We eat and do all kinds of things in life that seem momentarily great but have lots of downsides, and sugar is one of the big ones.
Given sugar’s complications, most of our Urban Peasant breads have no added processed sugar. The main exception is our Sourdough Chocolate bread, which contains chocolate chips made with cane sugar. Where we do add sugar, i.e., Golden Milk and Sourdough Chocolate, we use organic coconut sugar, much less processed and frankly not nearly as sweet, and only in small doses to reach a mildly sweet taste.
Here we come to Celebration Breads. They deserve a little leniency, especially for big holidays and change of seasons. We are officially in Spring; days are longer and warmer and we want to celebrate rebirth and the new life we see on branches and hear in bird songs. What better way to celebrate than a traditional bread glazed with cane sugar.
This year’s Urban Peasants sweet seasonal celebration has some organic cane sugar (in this case, an essential but minimal ingredient), lots of sprouted toasted almonds, organic coconut sugar, golden raisins, candied orange peels, local eggs and is shaped like a dove! The traditional Colomba Pasquale is available this week in a small format (see below). Much like panettone for Christmas, the Colomba is Italy’s Easter dove-shaped bread. With a top that is sweet and crunchy, a middle that is citrus-y and light, we’ve made it dairy free as well.
You see, we love tradition and symbolism as a practical art. Having a seasonal bread in the shape of a dove is a beautiful way to welcome Spring and the Easter holiday. And in a world full of division, rancor and war, a symbol for Peace is a good thing. For more about the symbolism of doves see this wikipedia article.
This week:
We are baking mini Colombas in our paninetti forms, and they have an even better ratio of topping to bread that we’re sure you’ll enjoy. We’ll have a traditional large Colomba Pasquale to admire (and maybe we’ll slice it up too). Find the mini-Colombas at RAD Market this Wednesday for $7 each. Message us on your order if you’d like to reserve one.
Regular Breads are also available for pre-order if you are local and we’ve got Buckwheat Berry cake available this week!
Once again Grazie Mille for your interest in fresh-milled sourdough gluten-free bread (and for reading long newsletters).
Flavio and Beth for the Urban Peasants
Thank you, Flavio, for this reminder about the complexities of our relationship with sugar. This week's Celebration Breads look phenomenal.